#1 - I'm more of an overachiever than I thought I was. If my Fitbit sets goals that are too easily reached for me, I raise them higher - and then I proceed to work harder to crush my new goals. 10,000 steps/day was too easy for me, so I raised it to 15,000 which I actually had to work a little to make sure I accomplished. My average daily step count? 19,000.

I'm sticking with this Fitbit so far, and really having fun meeting new people who use Fitbit on Instagram. I think the social atmosphere and competitive aspect of this device is going to keep me focused on making small changes and seeing the results over time. I'm excited about it and the fact that God has led me to this new way to overcome my addiction to food and the sedentary lifestyle.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

(Galatians 5:22-23)

The First Fruit: Love (Continued...)

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Colossians 3:13)

We are all imperfect. We all make mistakes, and nearly everyone you love will wrong you in some way, even if it's minor. So unless we are willing to forgive, we cannot truly love. If God wants us to LOVE like He does, He also wants us to FORGIVE like He does.

How does the Lord forgive?

...For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Jeremiah 31:34)

He forgets what's been done. He doesn't bury the hatchet with the handle sticking out. He doesn't keep counting wrongs. But most of all, He doesn't live in denial, either. It's not like He buries the memory deep inside so it can be brought up again next time, like an old wound. No, He forgets it completely as though it had never happened. This is how we can wrong God over and over - and yet He still forgives us.

Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." (Matthew 18:21-22)

His forgiveness is limitless. No matter how many times we do Him wrong, He not only forgives it, but He's not keeping count. And He expects the same from us.

If God is all-knowing, how can He forget?

He chooses to. And with his power, we can choose to forgive and forget as well. We can choose to hold a grudge instead, but it will eat away at us while the person we hold a grudge against goes on with their lives as if nothing happened. It makes no difference whether they know we forgive them or not. Or even if they've asked for forgiveness.

This is about us. How will we live? Do we want to live a life of bitterness and anger, holding on to grudges? Or do we want to live a life of love and peace, letting grudges go and forgetting them?

“It is finished!” (John 19:30)

When Jesus had finished paying our debts on the cross, He gave us a clean slate. Our sins were paid in full and our wrongs against Him completely forgotten. He was free to love us completely. In order to pay for our sins, He gave His life.

What are we willing to give up to be free to love the way God loves?

Can we give up our hurts, our bitterness, our anger at being wronged, and perhaps even our pride? According to Jesus, we cannot even love God the way we want to love Him if we have bitterness in our hearts or know that someone has bitterness against us:

Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24)

So if our hearts are preoccupied with making sure no one ever does us wrong again, we're too busy protecting ourselves to produce the kind of love that is a fruit of the Spirit. Only by forgiving the way that He forgives us can we produce this fruit. And that is my prayer for us today. With God's help, let us learn to truly forgive and forget.

Today is the start of a new series that I've been lead to explore: the Fruit of the Spirit and what it means to the modern Christian. I'm not sure how many parts will be involved with each fruit, but we'll go through them in order as described in Galatians:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

(Galatians 5:22-23)

The First Fruit: LoveAnd now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor 13:13)

Love is a multifaceted diamond. It has many faces. We talk about love so flippantly it's confusing. I love the color blue. I love my son. I love sunsets and walks on the beach. Of course I don't love all of these the same, right? In the English language, we have only one word for love, but in New Testament Greek, there are four words for love.

storge - family affection

eros - attraction

philia - friendship

agape - sacrificial, committed love

The kind of love that is referred to in 1 Corinthians 13:13 is agape. It's the kind of love that God gives us - unconditional and self-sacrificing - the kind of love that gives while expecting nothing in return. Ever wonder why God loves the unlovable? Certainly not because they deserve it.

We are to love in the same way that God loves - that is the fruit of the Spirit. So how do we do this? Fake it until we make it?

Not quite. You can't duct tape fruit filled branches onto a shrub and call it an apple tree.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5)

Unless you are grafted into the true vine, you can't bare this fruit on your own. Loving the unlovable? Giving without anything gained in return? Putting no limits or conditions on your love? Sounds impossible...but isn't there someplace deep inside that not only wants this for yourself, but wants to give it, too?

Grafted in His Love

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)

Do you really understand how wide and long and high and deep Christ's love is? After all, it surpasses all knowledge, right?

In order to produce this Fruit of the Spirit, we must experience His love for us:

Do you understand that you don't deserve His love?

Do you know that you can't earn it?

Did you know that God puts no limits on how much He loves you?

How many hoops do you have to jump through to gain His love? That's right - none.

What can you do for God that He can't already do for Himself? Yet He still loves you.

We love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

Unless we feel this unfathomable love that He has for us, we cannot then produce it. We can't fake it until we make it, because we'll never make it unless we are grafted in His love. So today, that is my prayer for myself and for you. That we will come to know and really grasp the love of Christ so that we can produce this fruit.